Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

JARREAU, Al

(b 12 March 1940, Milwaukee WI) Singer. Sang at parties, etc influenced by Johnny Mathis; became rehabilitation counseller with master's degree in psychology but kept singing; gigs at clubs in San Francisco led to signing with Reprise and international stardom with a versatile voice, his style now more inflluenced by Nat Cole, Billy Eckstine etc. First album We Got By '75 followed by Glow '76 (Billboard top 200); switch to WB for two-disc live set Look To The Rainbow/Live In Europe '77 (top 50), All Fly Home '78, This Time '80, Breakin' Away '81 (no. 9 album included hits with title track and 'We're In This Love Together'), Jarreau '83, High Crime '84, live In London '85 (from Wembley), L Is For Lover '86 (produced by Nile Rodgers), Heart's Horizon '88, Heaven And Earth '92, Tenderness '94. Others included Al Jarreau 1965 on Bainbridge, Jarreau Does Withers on Allegiance. He performed at the first-ever international contest for new musical shows '96 in Aarhus, Denmark (sponsored by local company Bang and Olufson).

Al Jarreau and the George Duke Trio Live at the Half Note 1965 (Vol. 1), recorded by composer/pianist Duke when Jarreau was 25, came out in 2011; amused, Jarreau said, 'We were puppies...it's a nice little snapshot of what we were doing.' He and Duke and have continued to work together occasionally, e.g. at the Berks Jazz Festival in 2011. Jarreau has won seven Grammys, and is the only vocalist ever to win in all three categories of jazz, pop and R&B. Givin' It Up 2006 was a studio album with George Benson, and won Grammys for each of them. He continues popular in Europe; Al Jarreau and The Metropole Orkest Live came out in 2012.